What are the connections?

[|Ruchira|]

What connections did you see in between the stories: Fish Cheeks and Marriage is a Private Affair?

I think big similarities are cultures clashing and cultural differences. In fish cheeks, the chinese girl is kind of ashamed of her own culture and background when she's around those white people. she is comparing her background with the white peoples' which is stupid because we are all different, no one really is better, although some seem to be more practical than others at times. and in Marriage...the son is urban and part of the new generation. he has a different way of thinking than his traditional family. these 2 same but different cultures are clashing.

What other similarities did you see?

[JustinK.]

I think both stories include the interaction between the main characters and their parents. In Fish Cheeks, Amy learned from her mom that she shouldn't try to cover up who she is, but instead be proud of who you are. Marriage is a Private Affair talks about how Nnaemeka and his father interact and react to Nnaemeka's marriage.

[nadiraamalina]

Yeah, I think that both stories are about how the new generation is trying to break out of the traditions that their families had in the past, and how both parties think that the other is wrong and they are right.

For example, Amy's Chinese family have different table manners from the minister's American family, and Amy wants to change how she looks and acts so she can be more like the typical American teen. Nnaemeka also wishes for his father to understand how a good wife is more than just a good disposition and a Christian upbringing, and wants him to realize how important love is to make a happy marriage.

[linnie]

Obviously, as Ruchira said, big theme of these two short stories are cultural difference or conflicts. In both stories, main characters have conflicts between their family or themselves because of generation gap or cultural difference.

For the story 'Marriage is a private affair', it handles issues about generation gap between father and son. Father, being more conservative, doesn't want his son to marry a girl from different tribe and yet his son doesn't care about girl's background. The father later regrets his wrong doing though. This shows how blending with culture can help people.

For the story 'Fish Cheek', it shows that a girl is embarrassed about her own culture and wants to avoid to show her tradition or culture. Robert, from America, obviously was disappointed or surprised at Chinese culture. The author, wants to adopt the new culture, and her mom says even though the author changes, internally, deep in the heart, she should acknowledge or remind that she is Chinese. Her mother accepts how her daughter blends her culture with other culture and warn her as well. I think she is more open than father in the story 'Marriage is a private affair'.

[lukejoo1092]

Well the main theme is cultural conflicts, but if I were to go in more detail then I'd say that how their cultures limit their decisions can also be a similarity. In fish cheeks, even though Amy knows that fish cheeks is her favorite part of a fish to eat, she can't freely eat it because she is afraid that Robert's family's culture would view her liking negatively. She can't freely do what she wants as being part of her culture because of other cultures.

Nnaemeka (i hope i got it right) is in a similar situation. He wants to marry the woman he loves but his culture doesn't allow him to. According to his culture, he doesn't have the say. His father does. So like Amy, his culture is forbidding him from doing what he wants to.

Although both situations get solved by Amy eventually accepting her culture proudly and Nnaemeka following his own will, both had to face cultural conflicts about themselves and their culture.

[woori]

I think so too. Both story said culture.

[akari]

i also think both story said about culture.

[esther]

I also think that both stories' main theme is about culture. We are not able to talk about this story unless we talk about the cultures that we see in both stories. Both of the characters in each story thinks that their culture is very important.

[woori]

I think both story has biased views.
In fish cheeks, Chinese culture is so good but Amy has a biased view.
In the other story, his wife is realy good character but his father has a lot of a biased view.
I thought it is so stupid.

[jisu25]

The connection between Fish Cheeks and MArriage is a Private affairs is cultural differences. It was showing different ways of how cultural difference is a big problem like in Fish cheek, AMy was worried about how the minister's son would think of Chinese custom. In MArriage is a Private affairs it was a problem between 2 tribes that had disagreement in marriage.

[yeajinchoi]

The most distinctive connection was the discussion of culture within the two stories. The stories were about the matter of being proud of their customs and their historical cultures. Another relation that I saw between the two stories were that they both talked about how the new generations perceived their cultures. In both stories the older generation, the parents, were very strict in their customs and what they live by while the newer generations are easily tempted by different customs that contrast their own.

[jungholee]

Yea, i think they both about different of culture. Further more, different of generation. In marriage is a private affair, father doesn't think about son's mind, and how he feels. But he thought his mind is more important, he cannot marriage with someone who doesn't love him. Also in Fish cheeks, the girl felt shamed about that she is Chinese, but the mother want to her daughter has proud of her country.

[sazad100]

Both the stories had to deal with cultures.
In fish cheeks the character had to worry about her family tradition, how it does not suit to other culture.
In Marriage is a private affair the character had to deal with the difficulty of following the culture.

[brandonina]

One similarity I found out rather than cultural differences is that the actual conflict of the both stories don't seem to be resolved. In fish cheeks, even though Amy learns an important lesson of being proud of her identity and culture, there's no clue of what happened to her relationship between Robert, the white guy. In marriage is a private affair, nobody knows what actually happens to the relationship between the father and the married couple. The author hints that the father wouldn't really try to solve their relationship even if he regretted for not accepting the new generation. But who knows what happens after?

[JustinK.]

I also found out that both stories involve people being embarrassed of themselves or a family member. In Fish Cheeks, Amy was embarrassed of her identity and feel inferior when meeting the minister's family. In Marriage is a Private affair, Okeke, the father feels embarrassed of his son's behaviors and didn't want to talk about it in public. Whenever the villagers talk about Okeke's son, Nnaemeka, Okeke just pretends not to hear and refuse to talk.